


Makeover

by hibiren



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Cute, Family, Family Feels, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Makeover, Memories, Nail Polish, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 02:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5811046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibiren/pseuds/hibiren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily begs Sebastian to paint his nails, and he finally gives in. What could be better than getting a makeover from an adorable five-year-old?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Makeover

“Make sure you keep the containers on the table, alright? I can only imagine what your mother would say if she saw pink and green polish all over the floor.” Sebastian asked as he sat next to his daughter at the kitchen table. The surface had been covered in the morning’s newspaper in preparation for the impending mess. Some time ago Lily had received a small princess-themed beauty kit for Christmas, a small plastic box in the shape of a treasure chest that contained nail polish, lip gloss, glitter, and small plastic bow clips complete with fake gems at the center of the tie. Lily loved it so much she wasn’t sure if she should use it, because she was afraid of wasting the makeup.

However now, a few months later she had her mind set on having a makeover day with Sebastian. Lily had begged and pleaded, giving her best puppy-dog eyes to her father until he caved in and let her at least paint his nails. For Sebastian there was nothing in the world harder than ignoring his daughter’s constant begging… especially when it was that cute.

Lily nodded and brushed her bangs back, as they’d started drifting into her eyes again. She really needed a haircut, so Sebastian would have to let Myra know about that. She was always the one that handled the schedules.

Unscrewing the lid to one of the pink bottles, she smiled and held up the polish-covered brush.

“Okay, Daddy! Lily will make you extra pretty today.” She giggled and Sebastian chuckled as well.

“Alright, sweetie, go for it. Your old man needs to look good every once in a while.” Sebastian smiled and laid his hand flat on top of the newspaper, his fingers spread out so it would be easy for Lily to paint his nails. Of course, the only reason he was doing this in the first place was because Lily had to practice somehow, and Myra was away on a business trip, leaving the two of them alone for a week. Not that he minded too much. It was cute watching Lily concentrate hard on painting his nails, trying her hardest not to spill any of the paint. And if anyone at work complained to him about it, well, Sebastian would just have to give them a taste of a pink-polished fist. He could imagine the looks already, so going into work like that would be an interesting experience.

Once Lily had finished, Sebastian looked at his hands and waved them around a little, trying to dry the thick layer of paint against his nails. Lily had done a pretty good job, so Sebastian was pretty impressed with her work.

“Looks pretty good, flower,” Sebastian said, smiling down at his daughter who was twirling one of her pigtails sheepishly in her fingers. “Can I have a turn with the polish? It’s not fair if it’s only me that gets to look pretty.”

“Sure!” Lily snapped open the treasure chest and fished around until she pulled out a sparkly lavender-colored polish. “You can use this! I like this color best.”

So Sebastian spent a while struggling with the brush, and also trying to get Lily to sit still enough for him to do a decent job. A few minutes later the table was covered in purple streaks, but Lily’s nails were painted and Sebastian could relax back into the kitchen chair. Nail painting was harder than it looked, so he had to give his daughter some credit. She’d pretty much done a better job on his nails than he did on hers, and he had more coordination. Or so he thought.

“Alright. All done,” Sebastian said as he placed the cap back on the nail polish and returned the bottle to the little blue treasure chest. “What do you think? Not bad, right?”

“Yeah! Not bad. We should practice more though. It’ll be fun!” Lily giggled and bounced in her chair.

Sebastian shrugged with a helpless smile. “Alright. I don’t mind. Of course now I have to show off your handiwork to my friends at work. I’m sure they’ll think I had it done professionally.”

“Really?” Lily’s eyes lit up and she giggled more. “Yay! I’m a professional!”

Placing his nail-polished hand on Lily’s head, Sebastian asked, “How about I go find the camera, so we can show your mother what we were up to while she was gone?”

Smiling widely, Lily nodded. “Ooh! I know where it is, I know where it is, I’ll get it!” And so, Sebastian watched from the kitchen as his daughter ran off…

\--

Sebastian remembered that afternoon well, even if the memory had been buried after years of drowning himself in work and whiskey to forget just that. However today was his spring cleaning day, so Sebastian forced himself to get out of bed and start digging through his drawers to see what he didn’t need anymore, whatever trash had gotten stuck in places that usually would go unnoticed, or what miscellaneous things he could donate.

So here he was, staring down at the faded ocean-blue treasure chest with the broken latch. He’d been fishing around in one of his junk drawers and found it by accident, almost instantly overcome with a wave of nostalgia soon followed by a stinging pain in his heart. Why now, did he have to remember?

His hands trembled as he opened the chest and choked back a sob as he caught sight of the contents. A small, half-used bottle of lavender nail polish, a bottle of pink polish with the label missing, and a folded up paper. Carefully, Sebastian picked up the paper from the box and set the box down on the floor so he could hold the paper in both hands. He knew exactly what it was.

He unfolded the paper slowly, as if it would disintegrate if he moved too fast. The picture was faded, the fold lines long worn into the paper, but he could still see the image clearly. A younger, happier Sebastian and his pigtailed daughter, both smiling, their hands clasped together to show off their polished nails. It was so, so painful to look at… but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from one of the best memories he had left of Lily.

As Sebastian looked at the photograph, he realized just how much he’d changed over the years. He hadn’t smiled that honestly in so long, he wondered if he was still capable of doing that. Lily, on the other hand, her smile… it looked so natural, she had truly enjoyed that evening, and it was so easy to see given the way her eyes sparkled despite the fading ink on the paper.

Sebastian folded up the paper when he could no longer look at his daughter’s grinning face. A tear slipped out of one eye and led to minutes of wounded sobs, as he finally let out everything he’d been holding in for god knows how long. He missed Lily so much. He missed Myra, too. And he’d lost them both before he realized how much they’d meant to him.

So all he could do was lie there on the floor, the folded paper clutched to his chest as his body shook with the force of his cries. He’d done so well these past few months to stop thinking about his daughter… done his best to push away or hide most of the small trinkets he just couldn’t throw away. It was only a matter of time before something like this would have happened, he told himself, but maybe it was for the better.

After he finally started to calm down and was able to breathe without crying, he stood up and tucked the folded photograph in his pocket and just left the makeup box on the floor. He went into his kitchen and found himself pouring a glass of whiskey. The strongest stuff he had. At the very least, Sebastian thought, it’d help him forget things again. The spring cleaning could wait.

Sebastian sat at his kitchen table, taking slow sips of the drink until he started feeling better. It was horrible, it really was, that he ended up resorting to drinking to forget his problems. It was just the solution that happened to work best, despite everyone’s displeasure with it. He could hear Myra’s complaining in the back of his mind and took another sip to drown out her words that had been long drilled into his head even after all this time.

Just what had he done to deserve having everything taken away from him like that? He’d been a good Samaritan on many an occasion. Sure, he had a rough time as a college kid, but everyone has it bad then. But Sebastian still wondered, why things happened the way they did. Why did his child have to die for him to see just how good he had it? Things were great before then. He’d found a job and through that a lover, he bought a house on the good side of town, and with Myra he raised a beautiful daughter. Yet that one day, everything went downhill. That one day he’d happened to be working overtime and wasn’t able to make it home. That one time Myra was away, out on important business matters, as she usually was.

To hold back another series of sobs, Sebastian placed the glass to his lips, hearing the ice clink against the sides as he took another long sip of whiskey. The burn of the liquid was distracting enough that he no longer saw fire in his mind’s eye, no longer heard the faint echoes of sirens as they passed the police headquarters and just assumed it was for another wreck on the horrible Krimson roads…

Before long there was nothing left in his glass. But Sebastian just couldn’t find the energy to get up and pour himself more. He couldn’t tell how long he sat there, leaning against the kitchen table, staring down at the empty cup and the melting ice cubes. That one question still resonated in his mind.

Why?

He’d never been able to find an answer anywhere he turned. Maybe someday when he was gone himself, finally reunited with his daughter, would he be able to say for sure. Sebastian just hoped it wouldn’t take him that long to come to terms with everything.

It took Sebastian a moment to realize his phone was ringing. Sliding out of the chair, he paced through the kitchen and snatched the phone up, hitting the ‘answer’ button and holding it up to his ear.

“Castellanos.”

Relief washed over him when he heard Joseph’s voice on the other end of the line. He was afraid, secretly hoping it wasn’t someone calling him in to work. It’d been Joseph’s day off as well, so maybe he was just calling to chat. He’d been known to do that sometimes.

“Hey, Seb. Everything okay? You sound like you’ve caught a cold…”

No, that was just because he’d spent the past hour or so crying, but he couldn’t say that. It’d just make things bad again. “Nah, I’m fine. Just relaxing at home. Tell me they don’t need us at work…”

“No, no, that’s not why I’m calling. I just wanted to check on you. I found some coupons for a place downtown and I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner with me.”

“Dinner, huh? Sure…” Sebastian trailed off and went silent for a few moments.

“I’ll see you at seven, then, alright? I’ll pick you up since it’s a closer drive if I come by.”

“Alright.”

So Sebastian hung up the phone and avoided walking into his bedroom, instead just buttoning his shirt back up and fishing around the hangers in the hallway closet for his trench coat. It’d do for now, as he didn’t feel like changing. A night out with Joseph would probably help, especially since it saved him from staying at home where he was afraid he’d run into another reminder of his past. And he looked forward to seeing the other man, as he always managed to be there to help whenever he needed it.

Stepping outside, Sebastian withdrew a lighter and a cigarette from the box in his trench coat pocket and lit it, watching the smoke twirl away as he exhaled. It was almost seven already, and it’d take Joseph about ten minutes to get to his apartment, so he decided to watch the sunset on the horizon as he waited, taking the short walk down to the parking lot and sitting down against the stairs so he had a better view of the fading light against the trees.

**Author's Note:**

> the idea came from a discussion Alec and I had about how Sebastian would deal with finding things from his past during spring cleaning... and so this beautiful thing was born hehe


End file.
